


Say "Cotton Candy Frappe" and Get On With It

by binaryStars



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Asexual!Kankri, Asexual!Sollux, Coffee Shops, Everyone loves coffee shop AUs, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 08:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10382121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/binaryStars/pseuds/binaryStars
Summary: Sollux Captor shouldn't have to take this.





	

Four months until university starts.

Only four more months of _this_ , and then he's out of here.

For now, though, one hundred and twenty one days 'til school starts, eighteen-year-old Sollux Captor stands as an average Starbucks barista, listening to your average ancient regular.

Margaret takes twenty minutes to choose what she wants, though she gets the same drink every time. She comes in four times a day, and does the same thing over and over again, and it drives every employee insane; most of them call breaks when she walks into the shop. Alas, he is unable to do anything, as he is the only employee at half an hour past opening.

"And how much will that be?" she asks, pulling out her change purse with trembling hands, and eyes wide. Her especially slow speed was no issue, Sollux remembers, when he first took the job, but at six-thirty-three in the morning, six months since he'd started working on that very first day, it's an irritating inconvenience.

"Five-oh-five," Sollux answers quickly.

"Sorry, what was that? I can't hear very well."

Right.

He suppresses an eyeroll or a harsh sigh.

"Five dol-lars, and five cents," he repeats, enunciating every syllable. It's a shame, he almost avoided lisping through this interaction.

"Thank you," she responds, and gives him a thankful smile. He smiles back, but it's mostly fake.

She hands him a twenty dollar bill.

With an inaudible and annoyed sigh out of his nose, he quickly punches it in, and gives her her change. Surprise, surprise, he's out of ten-dollar bills.

"Have a nice day," he tells her, as she heads out of the restaurant.

He turns around to start wiping down the counters, when he hears someone clearing their throat. When he turns, he sees another person standing where Margaret just was.

"Is it your policy to take as much time as possible to serve me in particular, or am I simply an unfortunate victim of fate, if there were such a thing?"

"It's six-thirty in the morning; I didn't expect you to be here," Sollux answers.

This redheaded and freckle-faced regular is Kankri Vantas, also known as the most obnoxiously brightly-coloured person on the planet. If light features weren't enough, he also insists on wearing a bright red turtleneck sweater. He usually wears stupidly reflective white pants, but today, it looks as though he's wearing black pants. Sollux is willing to bet his entire paycheck that these pants are obnoxious in some way, too. His entire character is annoying in some way. For example, his order:

"I'll have a Venti vanilla bean frappe with 5 pumps of raspberry with whipped cream on top."

Sollux turns to work on his order.

Kankri never says "the usual", nor does he say "cotton candy frappe"-- no, he insists on describing the drink to whichever poor barista has the displeasure of serving him.

"What brings you here so early?" Sollux questions. He is often the poor barista that has the displeasure of serving him, and he knows that Kankri thinks that they're on friendly terms.

"I go to the university a couple of blocks down from here, as I'm sure I've mentioned," he begins. He has mentioned this, several times, Sollux recalls, already feeling regret pouring into his soul, "and recently, I've undertaken a new class. Unfortunately for myself, I must now rouse at six in the morning, alongside my roommate, who I'm also sure I've mentioned before, but he is honestly just the worst. He can't cook, can't clean, and the only thing he seems to be able to do, considering that he's flunking most of his classes, is seduce anyone of any gender and force me out of my own apartment, which I'm paying for mostly on my own, in order to have his privacy, which believe me, I can respect, but he does it every other night, it seems."

"Ampora, right?" Sollux clarifies. "Not fish-di-- er, Eridan. The other one." It'd be a major mistake to curse around Kankri Vantas.

"Yes, that's him," is the exasperated response. "You've never had an encounter with him, have you? Consider yourself one of the more fortunate beings on the planet." He sips at his frappe. Sollux has noticed that he only takes tiny sips at the beginning, when the drink is still hot.

"I can imagine," he answers. "You know, you can ask for some cold milk to cool your drink down." Fuck. Why had he said that? He thought it was impossible for his order to get longer, but lo and behold, here he is, helping it become so.

"Hm?" he questions. "I'm sorry, I missed what you said, there. If you could repeat yourself, that would be absolutely lovely."

Oh, it's a pride thing. It's too early in the morning to tease him about it. "I asked if there's anyone behind you," he says.

"No, I'm the only one here, other than that elder that only took three hours to order," Kankri replies. "I'm sorry, that was rather rude of me; I shouldn't be so judgmental of those with lesser abilities than my own, and especially not to someone with as much experience as she-- I'm assuming she, which is also rude of me-- must have."

"Relax, it's not your fault she's got the memory of a goldfish and the hearing of a bat."

He goes quiet for a moment.

"If it weren't some godawful hour in the morning, I'd have you know that you shouldn't speak of anyone as such, but as I am still tired, and as you are correct, I suppose I can let you off the hook."

Sollux smirks. It isn't everyday, or ever, really, that Kankri Vantas doesn't jump at the chance to "inform you of your negligence". He pulls a feather duster out from under the desk, and starts dusting the cash register in front of him. It's instinct at this point to make himself look busy.

"So, what are you studying at the university?" Sollux questions. Tired Kankri Vantas is more agreeable than Un-Tired Kankri Vantas, and not entirely unpleasant to have a chat with. Plus, if his boss walks in and sees Kankri Vantas talking, she'll understand immediately and let him off the hook about it.

"Oh, I'm studying creative writing," he responds, surprised. Sollux can't imagine it's very often someone asks him things, or engages conversation at all with him. "And arts of the like, such as calligraphy. I've always had a hand for sketching, and, I'm not sure whether or not you can tell, but I enjoy words like no other, and I figure the ability to write them as lovingly as I speak them will come in handy sometime. I'm also fairly good at copying other peoples' handwriting, or so I'm very often told by everybody I've ever copied."

"Huh," Sollux states. He's surprised; he'd thought maybe he was studying feminist issues, or maybe a prerequisite to be a lawyer. Something that has him arguing, at any rate. "I'm going to start there next year, or in four-ish months for game design."

"Oh, that's quite interesting," he responds, genuinely sounding interested. "Game design is likely much harder than I've ever put thought to. I've always had a knack for puzzle games, but horror is another favourite genre of mine-" He stops speaking as a loud, high-pitched dinging begins going off in his pocket. Kankri Vantas pulls his sweater up a little bit, revealing more pants than expected, to pull out his phone. It's ancient. "It looks as though I must head to class, but we can continue this chat tomorrow, if you're working at the same time."

"Tomorrow's my day off," Sollux answers. A part of him wants to continue this conversation, how strange.

"Perhaps we could meet up for dinner, then?" Kankri suggests. "Or lunch, if that seems too intimate, but I have classes until five tomorrow."

"Sure, dinner's fine," Sollux nods. "Is there any place you had in mind, or...?"

"Seeing as this is more of a spur-of-the-moment suggestion, not entirely," Kankri answers, "but if you know of any place that has a preferably cheap menu and ambiance that isn't awful, and that also isn't a fish and chips "joint", or whatever it may be called, then I am open to suggestions."

"There's a McDonald's without a Playplace near where I live." The suggestion is half-jokingly, but it's not untrue.

"Though I'm aware you're likely joking, I am quite familiar with that particular McDonald's, as I live quite close to it as well, and, as it is an establishment that sticks out fairly well, perhaps we should meet there."

"Fine with me. See you at six?"

"Is six-thirty an okay time for you? I need to make sure I know what my roommate is doing and all, know who's coming over, who might be coming over, or actually, it might be a shorter list to ask who isn't coming over." He looks a little bit embarrassed to be making this request, which is funny, considering his typical order.

"Yeah, sounds fine to me," Sollux nods.

"Thank you."

Kankri Vantas turns and walks out of the Starbucks. It's dead quiet, and dead empty (Margaret must have left while they were chatting). Rain begins pattering softly on the roof. It's going to be a slow day, and he's alone for the first two hours of it. Six-forty-eight. Almost one hour left to go.

It's going to be a long day.


End file.
